God research around this series was brutal!! Well in the beginning anyway. Most of the images that I found when approaching this subject matter was just brutal.. Grizzly and dark, the tota opposite of how I wanted to paint my message of addiction. I always know when I'm onto a winner if I can't find any research like what I want to do.
Chuck Jines
"Heroin: A Love/ Hate Relationship" (2012)
Chicago based photographer, Jines spent two years on the streets of New York filming Heroin Addicts. A world not really seen by many people bar the ones experiencing it themselves.
They are darkly crisp images, forcing the graphic realities of active addiction into the viewers memory. Hauntingly beautiful they paint a picture of the pits of human degradation of self.
The Images ask that we feel empathy for the subject, to understand the depths of their pain. Cast with heavy exposure levels and impactful points of highlighting, the images are sharp and intimate.
As ever with black and white photography, the subjects seem locked in a timeless moment. Suspended in the past. While I love that aspect of Black and While photography, I want to create a sense of timelessness but futuristically projected, while maintaining that limited palette that aids in creating the sense of captured history.
Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato
The Virgin in Prayer (1640-50) Oil on Canvas
Playing with the idea of wanting to transform the approach towards the subject matter, I wanted to explore historical figures of reverence and how they are depicted.
Following pose structure (soft, serene, non direct gaze) I want to create a sense of uplifting addicts to an almost saint like reverence.
To create a sense that these people should be treated as the new age monk and Sage of our times. Looking at these images I also noticed a repetition of colour pallet. Dense blacks accompanied by blues, reds and pinks dominating through many culural religious iconography.
I also looked at more modern influences. Particularly with my pallet which I wanted to use as a way to convey the undertones of religion and projecting the subject matter into a futuristic time and space. Looking at religious iconography I noted (especially within Catholicism) repetition of colors. Blues, reds, deep hazy greens and golds creating vibrancy and depth to all the works. Same with other religious referencing such as the Indian Holi festival (above).
This ebullience of colour in my research led to looking at scifi film stills. Particularly the revival in 80s synth wave happening at the moment within film and music. Its duality of high contrasting lighting creating eerie imaginary worlds in which the viewer is carried away into other realms. Zhang Jingna Fashion Photographer
Jingna is possibly one of my favorite photographers at the moment. Her images have a fierce softness about them. Dewy skin tones, wisps of hair and deep penetrating exposures. She is glorious!! And in case you haven't already ascertained yet... I'm a massive fan girl (so much so, she's been added to my bucket list of "must work with" people) Her ability to transform a photo into another level of art boogles my mind. Her highly skilled mind transforming each image into pieces that start to resemble portraits painted by the greats of oil rather than the digital imagery that it is.
Jingna Zhang - Photographer and Director | Fashion, Beauty, Fine Art | NYC · Tokyo. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.zhangjingna.com/
Her works have appeared on multiple editions of Vogue, Elle and Harper's Bazaar and she was named on Forbes' 30 Under 30 Asia list in 2018. Not only is her talent evident but also her obvious aptitude for business. She applies these same sort of color palates to her work, deep greens and low lighting, creating sharp shadows and bouncing contrast
Patrizia Burra
Professional Photographer
Burra, P., & Burra, P. (2018). Patrizia Burra Photography. Retrieved from http://www.patriziaburra.com/index.html
"I think that photography and the images we create, are the realities transformed into dreams. Our life needs imagination, emotions, an inner impulse that leads us to create. I work every day and many hours a day. This is my way of venting, a road that may be open to everything. And it is in that way that I feel free to create. Here wonderful things can happen. Here, in this fantasy world, my creatures come to life by participating in my dreams." Patrizia Burra, 2018
Burra aptly discribes how I view photography. Once again (as I am ever finding across all my practices) there are two sides to the way I work. One side a love for documenting, this the more professional aspect of my photography practice and in opposition this draw to heavily fantasised images. To create imaginary spaces and characters that become more than themselves.
Christian Gaul
Photographer, Director, Publisher
Christian Gaul. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.christiangaul.com
Disembodied heads and oozing scenes of romanticised oddities. Gauls work is fascinatingly and darkly beautiful. He plays on the macabre and mottles it with reality. Poking fun at topics like cultural appropriation and extents of the human condition, purposely aiming to antagonising a reaction. Gaul's eye as a creative director is flawless. I was particularly attracted to his shots of his heads floating in voids of blackness. It creates a sense of isolation, cold solitude and depth of intrinsic emotion. It allows the viewer to feel as if they are peering into private spaces, not sure if these are of reality of of the mind, barren of light and time. This sense of timelessness and forward projection were two key elements I really wanted to push in my own work and was a critical influence of my framing through out the series.